Sailor Dropping Goulet Pens as Vendor :

[Snargle]

According to Brian Goulet's latest blog post, Sailor is dropping Goulet Pens as a distributor of its inks and pens because Brian had chosen not to stock Sailor's complete catalog (only select pens and all inks). If any of you are a fan of the Sailor inks and like shopping with Goulet Pens, this would be a good time to stock up on your favorite inks, as they'll be disappearing from their shelves soon. Kind of a dumb, short-sighted marketing policy, if you ask me. But nobody asked me...

 

[Rockminer]

Looks like I can add Sailor to the very small list of companies I chose not to do business with. If this is the true reason, then it looks like a lot of the small retailers will be out of luck. Oh well, plenty of other options in the pen and ink world.

 

[syngent]

I'd have prefered the goulets to pick up the pen line but they still offer lots of inks... and sailor still has a lot of other vendors to buy from as well so its really not that huge an issue for me

 

[Rockminer]

I'd have prefered the goulets to pick up the pen line but they still offer lots of inks... and sailor still has a lot of other vendors to buy from as well so its really not that huge an issue for me

From what I'm reading, Goulet cannot sell the inks anymore either. It seems to me that Sailor is saying carry all of our products or none of them. If this is true, I would imagine other vendors would face the same decision. I understand that it's a business decision by sailor but it seems to weed out the smaller vendors who can't afford the tens of thousands of dollars to stock an entire line.

 

[Snargle]

In Brian's post, he explained that they stopped carrying the Sailor pens because they just weren't moving, but were having good sales with the ink. As a small business, they have limitations to the amount and value of inventory they can carry, and the Sailor pens just weren't profitable. I'm not concerned about Goulet losing them...Brian and Rachel have good business sense and should do just fine without them. It just seems like a stupid policy for Sailor's U.S. distributor to limit the available market channels. It doesn't cost them anything to have Goulet sell their inks.

 

[Eeyore]

That sounds like a shortsighted decision of Sailor USA indeed. They are not trying to establish themselves as a boutique brand, are they?

 

[syngent]

To Canada, its been faster and cheaper to get stuff from Engeika in Japan anyway, Goulets still have lots of great lines they carry and wont be a big issue

Problem with all the Japanese pens, is they are way cheaper from the Japanese vendors online, then the American counterparts and thus not worth picking up from anyone on our side of the pond

 

[cursethis]

To Canada, its been faster and cheaper to get stuff from Engeika in Japan anyway, Goulets still have lots of great lines they carry and wont be a big issue

Problem with all the Japanese pens, is they are way cheaper from the Japanese vendors online, then the American counterparts and thus not worth picking up from anyone on our side of the pond

This. So much this.

Most of my Sailor stuff has come from eBay, with the only exception being the Sailor Jentle Blue that I got from the Fountain Pen Hospital when I was in NYC. Sailor is one of my top favorite lines for ink. I'm slowly compiling their entire Jentle ink line, it seems.

 

[bassopotamus]

From what I'm reading, Goulet cannot sell the inks anymore either. It seems to me that Sailor is saying carry all of our products or none of them. If this is true, I would imagine other vendors would face the same decision. I understand that it's a business decision by sailor but it seems to weed out the smaller vendors who can't afford the tens of thousands of dollars to stock an entire line.

Givson guitars pulled something like this in the 90s. Basically take the whole line or take nothing ( including affiliated brands) plus then set ridiculous sales quotas. They were gone from all but the biggest stores within a year. Little companies just can't afford the overhead. Frankly, the FP market is small enough that I can't fathom why you would limit sales to anyone

 

[andrew98]

To my understanding, there is no "Sailor USA." Sailor is now distributed in the US by Itoya, who I have found to be pretty unreasonable to deal with. I wouldn't be surprised if the "all or nothing" policy isn't Itoya's idea.

I was recently advised by a few people on FPN to email Sailor about having a fine nib in a new Pro Gear I bought swapped to a medium, as I didn't really care for the rather scratchy fine nib the pen came with. In the past, Sailor would apparently swap the nib for a nominal fee (something like $20), plus shipping back to the US.

Sailor said they would swap the nib and told me to wait for an email with details from Itoya. I waited two weeks but heard nothing from Itoya. I then emailed Itoya with the email discussion I had with Sailor, and they quoted me $175 to have the nib swapped, plus shipping to and from Japan, after I sent the pen to Itoya in California. What a joke. I'd much rather just deal with Sailor in Japan.

-Andy

 

[purerockfury]

I cannot understand decisions like this in business. Sailor or whomever owns them must have some kind of reason for this strategy. If a retailer is not selling one of your products well but another quite well why would deny yourself those sales? Inks can be bought by any pen owner or artist not everyone wants their particular line of pens.

You do have people like myself who are loyal to certain retailers and dealers and do everything they can to buy from them. For someone like me instead of scouring the internet looking to find a retailer for a particular product I would just find an equivalent and get that. When talking about something like inks there are so many brands out there that work well and look good that I could just find another company without much effort.

 

[jamesspo]

This is a bummer.. I love the Sailor Jentle blue, and loved getting it from Goulet's.

 

[Snargle]

It really looks like this decision is going to come back and bite Sailor/Itoya in the butt. Besides the disappointment and negative comments here, the announcement has been thoroughly discussed (and almost universally disapproved) at numerous fora, including FPN, Goulet's own blog, Reddit, and many others. It's pretty obvious that Sailor/Itoya doesn't have a good grasp of the importance and influence of social media and how quickly a negative opinion can spread through the entire virtual fountain pen community.

 

[LouieGrandie]

To my understanding, there is no "Sailor USA." Sailor is now distributed in the US by Itoya, who I have found to be pretty unreasonable to deal with. I wouldn't be surprised if the "all or nothing" policy isn't Itoya's idea.

I was recently advised by a few people on FPN to email Sailor about having a fine nib in a new Pro Gear I bought swapped to a medium, as I didn't really care for the rather scratchy fine nib the pen came with. In the past, Sailor would apparently swap the nib for a nominal fee (something like $20), plus shipping back to the US.

Sailor said they would swap the nib and told me to wait for an email with details from Itoya. I waited two weeks but heard nothing from Itoya. I then emailed Itoya with the email discussion I had with Sailor, and they quoted me $175 to have the nib swapped, plus shipping to and from Japan, after I sent the pen to Itoya in California. What a joke. I'd much rather just deal with Sailor in Japan.

-Andy

This is sad to hear. Sailor use to be represented by a nice lady in the South, can't remember the state. She use to travel around and exhibit the full line. She also was very helpful in swapping out nibs and the like for minimal cost. Sad to see what it has become.

 

[Slivovitz]

I like Goulet's, and have bought quite a few things from them, but I'm not so loyal that I'd drop a brand merely because they chose not to sell through this outlet. Makes me wonder if Sailor will still sell through ISellPens, and JetPens, two other dealers that I frequent.

Moot point, as I've never in fact bought a Sailor product. Don't need any more inks right now, and the pen models that interested me were too expensive. I should look for one of those Japanese eBay deals, though, if I change my mind.

 

[the_edski]

It's pretty obvious that Sailor/Itoya doesn't have a good grasp of the importance and influence of social media and how quickly a negative opinion can spread through the entire virtual fountain pen community.

Yep, we may be small but we are fierce.

 

[BigWill]

Here's hoping Pilot doesn't pick up on the Sailor trend. I don't understand why Itoya would squeeze the little guys out? Or is Itoya going to simply sell direct to the public?

 

[Snargle]

Here's hoping Pilot doesn't pick up on the Sailor trend. I don't understand why Itoya would squeeze the little guys out? Or is Itoya going to simply sell direct to the public?

Maybe Sailor wants to be the Japanese Montblanc?

 

[andrew98]

This is sad to hear. Sailor use to be represented by a nice lady in the South, can't remember the state. She use to travel around and exhibit the full line. She also was very helpful in swapping out nibs and the like for minimal cost. Sad to see what it has become.

That's the sort of service I was hoping to get. I'm happy to pay a little for a nib swap, but I don't want to pay more for a new nib than I paid for the entire pen. I can't just sell the pen with a fine nib, then buy the same one with a medium because that line of Pro Gear (A Mode) only comes with a fine nib. Oh well. It's a lovely pen, otherwise, and maybe I'll learn to love that fine nib in time.

-Andy

 

[cb91710]

In Brian's post, he explained that they stopped carrying the Sailor pens because they just weren't moving, but were having good sales with the ink. As a small business, they have limitations to the amount and value of inventory they can carry, and the Sailor pens just weren't profitable. I'm not concerned about Goulet losing them...Brian and Rachel have good business sense and should do just fine without them. It just seems like a stupid policy for Sailor's U.S. distributor to limit the available market channels. It doesn't cost them anything to have Goulet sell their inks.

Where's the "Like" button.

Big +1 on this one.